The Development of Editing (Technology and Theory)

Editing is a vital part of moving image as a whole. It is used to help emphasise the tone of the genre and directors will use it to help benefit and coincide with the narrative (if applicable). It also benefits with new information to the viewer. In the 1900's era of film, most were just shot with a camera, with raw footage unedited. When this came to cinema, they would have to play the rolls of film in the order intended.

There are three individuals that experimented with film editing with techniques used today - David Griffiths, Lev Kuleshov and Sergei Eisenstein.

David Griffiths is widely known for his techniques in narrative film-making, that are used still today. He is known to have 'created' parallel editing - which is used commonly today in scenes containing dialogue. He bought parallel editing to new depths with the 180 degree rule: a cinematography guideline where the characters are standing opposite to each other to help bring structure and familiarity to the scene, for the viewer. This is shown in such films such as 'Intolerance' and 'The Birth of a Nation'.

An example of the Kuleshov effect

Lev Kuleshov believes that the construction of film is vital for it to be successful - this being done through editing, he thinks that the interaction of two shots matter more than the actors/dialogue themselves. He is known to have his own method to film-making, commonly known as the 'Kuleshov effect': The preservation of two clips guiding the viewer to understand the scene through an experiment Kuleshov underwent. He placed a close up shot of someones neutral face expression, alongside various different images, the meaning is then created between the editing.

Sergei Eisenstein believed that editing (in particular, montaging) was a dialect form to create meaning to a scene. He was a student of Kuleshov, however departed due to differing opinions.

Moviola

The process of editing has changed dramatically in the past century. Originally film makers had to physically cut the film in order to create a continuous moving image, if they wanted to edit. This method was time consuming but due to the lack of technology, this was the only way possible. In 1924, The Moviola was introduced as a piece of editing technology. This allowed editing within film to become much easier and allowed the editor to have a more precise method of editing film. 'Edge Numbering’ was also introduced to film technology, allowing audio and visual to be in sync. 

Flatbed Editor

When the Flatbed editor was introduced, the moviola decreased in popularity. These machines were invented in Germany in the 1930's but didn't become mainstream until the 60's. They were said to be much easier to use and smaller also; companies such as Steenbeck and K.E.M (Keller Elektro Mechanik) were manufacturers of the Flatbed editor.

In the early days of film/moving image editing, linear editing was the only way to edit - examples being with tape to tape, using two video tape machines and a video monitor. It wasn't until the 1990's that things changed, with the introduction of non-linear editing computers. Non-linear editing today is more welcome compared to linear editing today which appears to be heading towards obsolescene. Non-linear editing is computer based, uploading footage from a camera and editing in modern softwares such as Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro. Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing, where raw footage is copied and edited without affecting the original tape, and the offline approach has been in film editing since the start.

Final Cut Pro X is exclusive to macOS, compared to Adobe Premiere Pro which is available across windows, macOS and more operating systems. These editing softwares are used by professionals today as a preferred method, allowing complex edits and various exporting formats.